What are some of the symptoms, treatment, and enthusiasm expectancy for someone who suffers from a type of Dementia?
Answers:
Definition
Dementia is not a specific disorder or disease. It is a syndrome (group of symptoms) associated beside a progressive loss of memory and other intellectual functions that is serious ample to interfere with performing the tasks of day after day life. Dementia can take place to anyone at any age from an injury or from oxygen deprivation, although it is most commonly associated with aging. It is the overriding cause of institutionalization of elder adults.
Description
The definition of dementia has become more inclusive over times past several decades. Whereas earlier descriptions of dementia emphasize memory loss, the last three edition of the professional's diagnostic handbook, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders(also agreed as the DSM) define dementia as an overall decline within intellectual function, including difficulties with speech, simple calculations, planning and decision, and motor (muscular movement) skills as well as loss of memory. Although dementia is not cause by aging itself- most researchers regard it as resulting from injuries, infections, braindiseases, tumors, or other disorders- it is rather common contained by older family. The prevalence of dementia increases rapidly near age; it doubles every five years after age 60. Dementia affects only 1% of individuals aged 60- 64 but 30%- 50% of those older than 85. About four to five million individuals in the United States are artificial by dementia as of 2002. Surveys indicate that dementia is the condition most feared by elder adults in the United States.
Causes and symptoms
Causes
Dementia can be cause by nearly forty different diseases and conditions, ranging from dietary deficiency and metabolic disorders to head injuries and adjectives diseases. The possible causes of dementia can be categorized as follows:
Primary dementia. These dementias are characterized by harmed to or wasting away of the brain tissue itself. They include Alzheimer's disease(AD), frontal lobe dementia (FLD), and Pick's disease. FLD is dementia caused by a disorder (usually genetic) that affects the front portion of the brain, and Pick's disease is a singular type of primary dementia that is characterized by a progressive loss of social skills, terms, and memory, leading to nature changes and sometimes loss of moral sentence.
Multi-infarct dementia (MID). Sometimes called vascular dementia, this type is cause by blood clots in the small blood vessel of the brain. When the clots cut off the blood supply to the brain tissue, the brain cell are damaged and may die. (An infarct is an nouns of dead tissue cause by obstruction of the circulation.)
Lewy body dementia. Lewy bodies are areas of injury found on undermined nerve cell in undisputed parts of the brain. They are associated with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, but researchers do not however know whether dementia with Lewy bodies is a distinct type of dementia or a flux of Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease.
Dementia related to alcoholism or exposure to heavy metals (arsenic, antimony, bismuth).
Dementia related to infectious diseases. These infections may be cause by viruses (HIV, viral encephalitis); spirochetes (Lyme disease, syphilis); or prions (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease). Spirochetes are spot on kinds of germs, and prions are protein particles that shortage nucleic acid.
Dementia related to abnormality in the structure of the brain. These may include a buildup of spinal fluid within the brain (hydrocephalus); tumors; or blood collecting beneath the membrane that covers the brain (subdural hematoma).
Dementia may also be associated with depression, low level of thyroid hormone, or niacin or vitamin B 12deficiency. Dementia related to these conditions is often reversible.
Genetic factor in dementia
Genetic factor play a role in several types of dementia, but the rush of these factors contained by the development of the dementia vary considerably. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is known, for example, to hold an autosomal (non-sex-related) dominant pattern contained by most early-onset cases as well as within some late-onset cases, and to show different degrees of penetrance (frequency of expression) contained by late-life cases. Moreover, researchers have not even so discovered how the genes associated with dementia interact beside other risk factors to produce or trigger the dementia. One non-genetic risk factor presently human being investigated is toxic substances in the environment.
EARLY-ONSET ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE.In early-onset AD, which accounts for 2%- 7% of cases of AD, the symptoms develop in the past age 60. It is usually caused by an adjectives genetic mutation. Early-onset AD is also associated with Down syndrome, surrounded by that persons near trisomy 21 (three forms of human chromosome 21 instead of a pair) often develop early-onset AD.
LATE-ONSET ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE.Recent research indicates that late-onset Alzheimer's disease is a polygenic disorder; that is to say, its development is influenced by more than one gene. It have been set since 1993 that a specific form of a gene (the APOE gene) on human chromosome 19 is a genetic risk factor for late-onset AD. In 1998 researchers at the University of Pittsburgh reported on another gene that controls the production of bleomycin hydrolase (BH) as a second genetic risk factor that acts independently of the APOE gene. In December 2000, three separate research studies reported that a gene on chromosome 10 that may affect the processing of a protein (called amyloid-beta protein) is also involved surrounded by the development of late-onset AD. When this protein is not properly broken down, a starchy substance builds up surrounded by the brains of people next to AD to form the plaques that are characteristic of the disease.
MULTI-INFARCT DEMENTIA (MID).While the chief risk factor for MID are high blood pressure, advanced age, and mannish sex, there is an adjectives form of MID called CADASIL, which stands for psychological autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy. CADASIL can create psychiatric disturbances and severe headaches as okay as dementia.
FRONTAL LOBE DEMENTIAS.Researchers think that between 25% and 50% of cases of frontal lobe dementia involve genetic factor. Pick's dementia appears to have a much smaller genetic component than FLD. It is not all the same known what other risk factor combine with adjectives traits to influence the development of frontal lobe dementias.
Treatments
Reversible and responsive dementias
Some types of dementia are reversible, and a few types respond to specific treatments related to their cause. Dementia related to dietary deficiencies or metabolic disorders is treated near the appropriate vitamins or thyroid medication. Dementia related to HIV infection often responds capably to zidovudine (Retrovir), a drug given to prevent the AIDS virus from replicating. Multi-infarct dementia is usually treated by controlling the patient's blood pressure and/or diabetes; while treatments for these disorders cannot undo mischief already caused to brain tissue, they can slow the progress of the dementia. Patients next to alcohol-related dementia often augment over the long term if they are competent to stop drinking. Dementias related to head injuries, hydrocephalus, and tumors are treated by surgery.
It is earth-shattering to evaluate and treat elderly patients for depression, because the symptoms of depression in elder people normally mimic dementia. This condition is sometimes called pseudodementia. In postscript, patients who suffer from both depression and dementia often show some advancement in intellectual functioning when the depression is treated. The medication most often used for depression related to dementia are the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) paroxetineand sertraline. The mental status nouns should be repeated after six- 12 weeks of antidepressant medication.
Irreversible dementias
As of 2001, there are no medication or surgical techniques that can cure Alzheimer's disease, the frontal lobe dementias, MID, or dementia next to Lewy bodies. There are also no "magic bullets" that can slow or stop the progression of these dementias. There is, however, one medication, Aricept, explicitly being used to halt the progression of Alzheimer's disease. In mixing, another medication called galantamine(Reminyl) is also human being used to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. Patients may be given medications to luxury the depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances, and other behavioral symptoms that accompany dementia, but most physicians prescribe relatively mild dosages surrounded by order to minimize the troublesome side effects of these drugs. Dementia near Lewy bodies appears to respond better to treatment with the newer antipsychotic medication than to treatment with such elder drugs as haloperidol(Haldol).
Patients in the hasty stages of dementia can often remain at home beside some help from house members or other caregivers, especially if the house or apartment can be fitted beside safety features (handrails, right lighting, locks for cabinets containing potentially death-defying products, nonslip treads on stairs, etc.). Patients in the after that stages of dementia, however, usually require skilled care contained by a nursing home or hospital.
Prognosis
The prognosis for reversible dementia related to nutritional or thyroid problems is usually good once the basis has be identified and treated. The prognoses for dementias related to alcoholism or HIV infection depend on the patient's age and the severity of the underlying disorder.
The prognosis for the irreversible dementias is gradual deterioration of the patient's functioning ending surrounded by death. The length of time vary somewhat. Patients with Alzheimer's disease may live from two- 20 years near the disease, with an average of seven years. Patients beside frontal lobe dementia or Pick's disease live on average between five and 10 years after diagnosis. The course of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is much more rapid, beside patients living between five and 12 months after diagnosis.
Prevention
The reversible dementias related to thyroid and nutritional disorders can be prevented in frequent cases by regular physical checkups and proper attention to diet. Dementias related to toxic substances in the workplace may be prevented by thrifty monitoring of the work environment and by substituting less hazardous materials or substances within manufacturing processes. Dementias cause by infectious diseases are theoretically preventable by avoiding exposure to the prion, spirochete, or other disease agent. Multi-infarct dementia may be preventable within some patients by attention to diet and monitoring of blood pressure. Dementias caused by abnormality in the structure of the brain are not preventable as of 2002.
With respect to genetic factors, test are now available for the APOE gene implicated contained by late-onset Alzheimer's, but these tests are used primarily within research instead of clinical practice. One reason is that the check results are not conclusive; about 20% of populace who eventually develop AD do not carry this gene. Another historic reason is the ethical implication of testing for a disease that presently have no cure. These considerations may change, however, if researchers discover better treatments for primary dementia, more successful preventive methods, or more reliable genetic markers.
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